This article examines recent efforts to conceptualize group-level desistance from terrorism, identifies relevant actors and actions in the competition of terrorist groups and the governments they target, and identifies the multiple forms of desistance that can emerge from this competition. The case studies of terrorist group desistance by Wheatley and…

This article addresses the literature on disengagement from the discipline of criminology, an issue normally shaped by the discussion of desistance (the prolonged or permanent cessation of criminal behavior). Like terrorism studies, the methodological challenges in studying the desistence from terrorism in criminology are the limitations posed by cross-sectional as…

This article is the first critical analysis of terrorism disengagement by the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA). This process was conducted in instalments over nearly three decades. It has not been theoretically assessed as far as studies on ‘how terrorism ends’ are concerned, and it does not fit into any…

The growing presence of modern terrorism on the Internet is at the nexus of two key trends: the democratization of communications driven by user-generated content on the Internet; and the growing awareness of modern terrorists of the potential of the Internet for their purposes. How best can the terrorists’ use…

This article provides a qualitative analysis of Saudi Arabia’s Religious Rehabilitation and Disengagement Programme; a primarily ideologically-focussed initiative. It details the structure and practice of the programme and concludes that the programme’s success comes from the extensive social support given to a detainee and their families that circumvent further radicalization…

Madaris (plural of madrasa) face a multitude of challenges in preparing students for life in rapidly modernising societies and emerging globalised knowledge economies. The complexity of the role and tasks of madaris, which are caught in the interface of modernity and tradition, the challenges they face, and the strategies they…

On 17 November 1997, terrorists affiliated with the Islamic Group massacred 62 people, mostly foreign tourists, in Luxor, one of Egypt’s foremost historical sites. Within a year, much of what remained of the Islamic Group had renounced violence, a rare step for a terrorist group. How did this fast desistance…

By analyzing 648 groups that existed between 1968 and 2006, this monograph examines how terrorist groups end. Its purpose is to inform U.S. counterterrorist efforts by understanding how groups have ended in the past and to assess implications for countering al Qa’ida. This monograph results from the RAND Corporation’s continuing…

Stemming from the 2008 United Nations Symposium on Supporting Victims of Terror, the Pakistan Terrorism Survivors Network (PTSN) offers short and long term settlement therapy throughindividual and collective meetings and outreach methods. PTSN works in close collaboration with The Global Survivors Network (GSN) which provides a platform for survivors of…

Europol, the European Police Office, was created by the member states of the European Union as the central hub for the exchange and analysis of law enforcement information. Its existence is proof that the cooperation between member states in creating a single area of freedom, security and justice has reached…

This paper is an informal summary of a private roundtable discussion held on 22 July 2008 under the title ‘Terrorism, radicalisation and the Internet’. The meeting was held under the Chatham House Rule. This paper is not a verbatim transcript of discussion and does not necessarily reflect the views of…

There is a growing awareness that Islamic extremists around the world see the internet as an important tool for radicalising and recruiting new generations of terrorists. The British government has responded to this by criminalising ‘the glorification of terror’ in the 2006 Terrorism Act with specific reference to the distribution…